According to ancient Slavic beliefs, it was believed that a toy, especially a doll, not only brings happiness and joy to children, but also protects them from evil eye and diseases, filling the house with prosperity.
The very first toys, in the shape of figures of animals and people, were created by our ancestors of wood and clay, and the dolls spun from straw and vines. One of the oldest family defenders of the Slavs was the "knotted" doll - motanka, whose roots of creation go to a deeply forgotten old, several thousand years ago, the long-known Trypillian culture.
According to old signs, such a doll has no face and name to avoid resemblance to a living person and not to inculcate an evil spirit.
The head of Motanka is more pronounced than other parts of the body - the cross is applied to the face, symbolizing the Sun and combing hair from flaxen threads. As for her clothes, the shirt is characterized by three times: the present, the future and the past, the skirt symbolizes the earth, and the scarf - a strong relationship with the sky. This wonderful Slavic doll is endowed with magical power, therefore it is passed down from generation to generation, as a common amulet and a talisman for the whole family.
There are three types of "motanok": a game doll - a baby, a household doll - a birch-tree and a ritual doll - for brides.
We, of course, live in the modern world and we treat such fairy tales with a smile. After all, the main idea is the creative development of children, the storage of the traditions of ancestors.
